National Advisory Council Chair’s Message

We are approaching the mid-point of a very eventful decade. One that likely historians look back on as a monumental one for humankind.

In half a decade we have already lived through a pandemic, significant wars, political polarization with important elections on the horizon, critical climate milestones, and rapidly evolving technologies.

Technology innovation is moving so fast that regulatory bodies can’t keep up putting protections and standards in place. AI certainly is the flagship of this challenge. The technology itself will have remarkable influence on business, health care, communication and even the arts. It also comes with great risk and the regulators are playing catchup as the technology advances at rapid rates.

Closer to home, the EFC group learned in our recent government relations activity in Ottawa, this past February, that our current Canadian EV charging infrastructure was installed unregulated with respect to measurement standards. Unlike traditional gas pumps that are highly regulated, monitored, and certified ensuring the consumer gets the accurate amount of gas they are paying for, those same guardrails were not in place for EV charging. The standard for Level 1 and Level 2 Chargers was only published and came in effect in March of this year. The current installed base in Canada will be grandfathered in and not reviewed. The assumption is obsolescence will take place fast as the technology advances and that the current installed base will have a short lifespan. Level 3 and 3+ standards are still in development.

For us as business leaders we have to navigate through this rapid change. Adapt the tools to stay competitive. Understand the changes and opportunities ahead of ourselves and put our companies in positions to succeed. The HR role will become even more critical as we will need to recruit and develop teams with skill sets to maximize these new technologies.

The theme of this year’s event is Elevate. The conference is an opportunity to step away from the day-to-day minutia of our businesses to plan, correspond with colleagues and position ourselves to Elevate our business.

Sometimes to get a bigger picture we also need to get a higher vantage point. Elevate our view. Hopefully, this beautiful mountain region, the speakers we have arranged and this platform for communication and collaboration will inspire us to higher places.

Dave Klarer
Sales Outsource Solutions
2023-24 Chair, EFC’s National Advisory Council